Morning Distribution for Monday, July 24, 2023

A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Morning Distribution]( Monday, July 24, 2023 Your daily briefing from FiveThirtyEight --------------------------------------------------------------- The Morning Story [A demonstrator sits beside a sign that reads "Don't Mess With Texas Voters"]( [16 States Made It Harder To Vote This Year. But 26 Made It Easier.]( By [Nathaniel Rakich]( Two years ago, the biggest battles in state legislatures were [over voting rights](. Democrats loudly — and [sometimes literally]( — protested as Republicans passed new voting restrictions in states like [Georgia]( [Florida]( and [Texas](. This year, attention has shifted to [other hot-button issues]( but the fight over the franchise has continued. Republicans have enacted dozens of laws this year that will make it harder for some people to vote in future elections. But this year, voting-rights advocates got some significant wins too: States — controlled by Democrats and Republicans — have enacted more than twice as many laws expanding voting rights as restricting them, although the most comprehensive voter-protection laws passed in blue states. In all, 39 states and Washington, D.C., have changed their election laws in some way this year. Here’s a rundown of the most important shifts. Where voting rights were restricted in 2023 (so far) Driven by many Republicans’ false belief that lax voting laws allowed the 2020 election to be stolen from former President Donald Trump, 2021 was a record-breaking year for voting restrictions. According to data from the [Voting Rights Lab]( a pro-voting-rights organization that tracks election-law legislation, state legislators introduced 566 bills restricting voter access or election administration that year, 53 of which were enacted. This year hasn’t been quite so busy, but as of July 21, 366 laws with voting restrictions had been proposed and 29 had been enacted. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: Why A Third-Party Candidate Poses A Threat To Biden]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 47 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023.